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U.S. is 15 years behind South Korea in Internet speed [says a Union]
Biz Journals ^ | Steven Brown

Posted on 08/29/2009 9:34:46 AM PDT by libh8er

A report on Internet speed in the United States says the country isn’t likely to catch world leader South Korea for 15 years.

Or for much longer — at current growth rates, the United States will only reach South Korea’s speed today in 15 years.

The report, by the Communications Workers of America, details Internet download and upload speeds all over the United States and some of its affiliated territories. In the last year, the average upload speed in the United States “barely changed,” the report said, and download speed only grew a little, from 4.2 megabits per second in 2008 to 5.1 megabits per second in 2009.

In South Korea, average download speed is four times faster — 20.4 megabits per second. The United States also lags Japan (15.8 mbps), Sweden (12.8 mbps), the Netherlands (11 mbps) and 24 other countries.

At average U.S. speed it takes about 35 minutes to download 100 family vacation photos, and four hours to upload them.

The report said U.S. speeds aren’t sufficient for the needs of in-home medical monitoring, distance learning programs, or to run a modern business from home.

“People in Japan can upload a high-definition video in 12 minutes, compared to a grueling 2.5 hours” at the average U.S. speed, the report said.

California improved its position to No. 11 in download speed among U.S. states and territories in 2009. Last year it ranked No. 22.

Locally, the fastest download speed in San Francisco County was in Zip code 94131, at 14.7 mbps, though that area had slower upload speed than some other bits of the county.

Several Alameda County Zip codes rivalled that speed, and San Leandro’s 94579 area blew them out of the water at a download speed of 60.6 mbps.

The report calls for more investment in the nation’s Internet infrastructure. It also suggests shifting the outdated universal service payments that support voice telephone service over to pay for better and cheaper high-speed Internet service for everyone.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: competitiveness; internet; japan; korea
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How in He!! did they come up with the 15 years figure ?? Why not 13, or 16 ? Here's the money quote and it's from the last paragraph : The report calls for more investment in the nation’s Internet infrastructure.

The source of the 'investigation': http://www.cwa-union.org/

1 posted on 08/29/2009 9:34:46 AM PDT by libh8er
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To: libh8er

Considering most of the USA’s phone network was built with union labor, that says quite about about the CWA being responsible for holding us back.


2 posted on 08/29/2009 9:36:09 AM PDT by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: libh8er

Most of the smaller advanced countries do have better service and better phone systems. That is a fact, the reason. The size of the United States.


3 posted on 08/29/2009 9:38:26 AM PDT by org.whodat (Vote: Chuck De Vore in 2012.)
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To: libh8er
"The report said U.S. speeds aren’t sufficient for the needs of in-home medical monitoring, distance learning programs, or to run a modern business from home.

Balderdash. 99% of ALL companies are running just fine, thank you, on what we've got. Would we like it faster? Sure, but it isn't exactly stalling commerce. The repot writers need to check their bias at the door.

4 posted on 08/29/2009 9:39:03 AM PDT by alancarp (Obama: treat the unborn with AT LEAST as much respect as you do terrorists!!)
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To: libh8er

5 posted on 08/29/2009 9:39:12 AM PDT by BGHater (Insanity is voting for Republicans and expecting Conservatism.)
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To: libh8er

15 is probably when their next CONTRACT is up...

The REASON, my friends a CWA.. We can’t AFFORD MORE SPEED,, we’re Paying your effing contracts.

/cynic


6 posted on 08/29/2009 9:39:31 AM PDT by gwilhelm56 (Orwell's 1984 - To Conservatives, a WARNING - to Liberals, a TEXTBOOK!)
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To: libh8er

In Japan, you can get gigabit residential internet for just over a hundred bucks.

Meanwhile, here, Verizon has the best residential internet at 50/20 megabits for over 150 dollars. And thats only for very select locations.

I can get 25/2 megabits from Cox for $70


7 posted on 08/29/2009 9:39:32 AM PDT by Crazieman (Feb 7, 2008 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1966675/posts?page=28#28)
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To: libh8er

But they're working hard on improving it.

8 posted on 08/29/2009 9:39:42 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: pnh102

And now they want their share of the stimulus pie.


9 posted on 08/29/2009 9:40:28 AM PDT by libh8er
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To: libh8er

Uh Korea isn’t even the size of California. Japan? Please. Yeah who would have thought wiring up a country with 20 times the landmass and population would take longer then wiring up the Netherlands. LOL.

BTW: My Internet speed is 25 Mbsp Down and 15 Mbps Up. And yes. That makes me a better person than you. ;-)


10 posted on 08/29/2009 9:42:33 AM PDT by Smogger
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To: org.whodat
People forget in South Korea and Japan, because of the very high urban population density, the local telcos can afford to spend the exorbitant cost to wire everyone for ultra-fast broadband, since there are enough potential users per square area of urban land to justify the installation costs involved. Here in the USA, only a relatively small number of cities have the type of potential user density to make such ultra-fast broadband connections economically viable.

Because of the lower urban density and the fact a large fraction of the US population lives in rural areas, the result is that the US telcos like AT&T, Verizon, etc. have to deliberately limit their speeds to make longer-distance connections possible. Right now, I'm running EarthLink ADSL at 6 megabits/second download/1 megabits per second upload, mostly limited by the DSL capacity on the AT&T lines.

11 posted on 08/29/2009 9:50:31 AM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: libh8er

I now live in Moldova (find that one) part of the ex-soviet union. Average wage less than $200 a month. I am here in the states for my annual visit... Now Moldova is known as the poorest most densely populated country in Eastern Europe, however I have MUCH better internet connection and speed there than here in the U.S. Also much cheaper!! by 50%
We are talking a country where horse and wagon is a common mode of transportation.


12 posted on 08/29/2009 9:55:26 AM PDT by flash2368 (Scary Times)
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To: libh8er
Judging by the nearby thread this morning, showing a clueless Federal Reserve Inspector General not-answer and obfuscate serious trillion-dollar oversite questions, I'd say we are headed to be 15 years behind the internet speed of north Korea.
13 posted on 08/29/2009 10:01:40 AM PDT by C210N (A patriot for a Conservative Renaissance!)
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To: C210N
..golfclap
14 posted on 08/29/2009 10:07:18 AM PDT by norraad ("What light!">Blues Brothers)
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To: libh8er

When Obama takes over the Internet, he’ll fix it... /s


15 posted on 08/29/2009 10:07:53 AM PDT by LibFreeOrDie (Obama promised a gold mine, but he will give us the shaft.)
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To: libh8er
i'm getting fiber right to my house october 1st, DSL-11Meg max.
16 posted on 08/29/2009 10:12:16 AM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist -ww- I AM JIM THOMPSON!)
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To: libh8er

There are way too many people in the US on modems though.

It could be argued that it’s allowing other countries to build Internet dominance in some areas.


17 posted on 08/29/2009 10:13:39 AM PDT by chuck_the_tv_out (click my name)
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To: libh8er

I’m tired of hearing how the US lags in broadband compared to geographically small countries like SK. The US spans multiple time zones and has every form of geography in the world. It is not as easy to provide broadband to someone in the desert 200 miles from the nearest town as it is to provide broadband to what is basically a city-state in South Korea.


18 posted on 08/29/2009 10:14:26 AM PDT by Terpfen (FR is being Alinskied. Remember, you only take flak when you're over the target.)
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To: RayChuang88
You are entirely correct.

By the way, not to brag, but I have really killer speed here with the rigs I am running in Tokyo. But I have also seen some snazzy stuff next door in Korea, too. (Not North Korea, of course, they are using carrier pigeons up there, outside of the limited guys who are in DPRK cyberwarfare offices)...

19 posted on 08/29/2009 10:15:49 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo (When reality hits us that it's not "Incompetence" but rather "Intentional", what are we going to do?)
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To: AmericanInTokyo

that is, the carrier pigeons they have managed not to eat yet


20 posted on 08/29/2009 10:17:06 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo (When reality hits us that it's not "Incompetence" but rather "Intentional", what are we going to do?)
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